A magnet gives the 2000 stotinka away: that year Bulgaria moved its small coins from aluminium bronze to bronze-plated steel. It looks almost the same as the 1999 stotinka, but it sticks to a magnet, and that is how collectors tell the two types apart.

The obverse shows the Madara Horseman, an 8th-century rock relief and UNESCO World Heritage site, beneath BALGARIYA. The reverse gives the value and the year under a half-circle of twelve stars.

For circulation the steel stotinka was struck with the date 2000, while the 2002 version was issued in proof only; stotinki stayed in circulation until 31 January 2026, when Bulgaria completed its move to the euro. The Madara Horseman did not disappear with the lev: he moved onto the Bulgarian euro cents.

Condition F-VF: the coin circulated for a long time, the horseman’s relief is smoothed, but the design, value and date are clear. A piece from the everyday change of the lev’s last era.

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